Under its “National to Nationwide” expansion programme Morrisons plans to open 2.5m sq ft of new store space by 2013/14.
This will equate to around 40 new stores. Some 600,000 sq ft will be delivered this year, 100,000 sq ft from existing store expansions.
Last year Morrisons opened 16 stores, which were previously owned by Netto.
At an average of 8,000 sq ft they were much smaller than Morrisons traditional format.
Dalton Philips, Morrisons chief executive, said: “In addition to growing sales and delivering good profit growth, we also made great strides in developing the business for the future.
“We have opened our first convenience store, invested further in our unique production capabilities, increased efficiency across the group, gained valuable insights from our trial stores and taken our first steps towards becoming a multichannel retailer.”